Meal Planning for Home Cooks

The Sweetest Thing

Sugar. It’s delicious. Of course it’s delicious. But man it’s SO bad for our bodies. AND it sneaks into everything… So doing a full sugar detox is super hard. Our very good friend adapted the “Keto” diet several months ago. He explained to me and my husband how much better he feels, and how it all works. We decided to go for it…at least for a week or so in order to reset our bodies 😉 Here are some of the incredible recipes I tried last week with great success… Each meal has less than 5 grams of carbs, and almost no sugar.

The cheese crisps in the Kale Ceasar were super delicious…and if you make extra, you can snack on them throughout the week 😉 Just keep in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat for less than a minute in the toaster before noshing…

The Rosé pairing with the smoky bacon and creamy dressing was truly outstanding!

The Arugula Mushroom Cauliflower Rice was SO good…my whole family agreed it could be a nightly dinner! Feel free to play with it…you could easily add sausage to the rice, or substitute grilled chicken or fish if you don’t care for pork….though I’m not sure you’re on the right blog if you don’t like bacon..hahaha! Pairing Pinot Noir with mushrooms is one of my all time favorite wine & food pairings — so please follow suit! You will definitely enjoy!

Admittedly, I haven’t yet tried the Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, however www.skinnytaste.com always nails her recipes…so I’m sure it’s great!! I did adjust proportions a bit to accommodate for skipping the panko crumbs from the original recipe. If you would rather go for the original, check it out on http://www.skinnytaste.com/buffalo-chicken-meatballs/ Even the original recipe has only 1 carb per meatball. So if you’re super conservative with your other carbs that day…you would certainly be fine with a little panko. I also skipped it to make it GF… we have yet to find a GF panko that we really like.
***UPDATE!! — I have now made the Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with the wedge salad – they were beyond aMAZe-balls!!! Hee hee! I just adjusted some notes in the ingredient list to clarify some proportions…so if you previously saved it – make sure to update 😉

The blue cheese dressing is a Barefoot Contessa recipe that I’ve made a million times with incredible success! It’s so tasty that even my husband who does NOT like blue cheese will have some…! Seriously! I substituted full fat greek yogurt for the sour cream, and unsweetened coconut milk for the milk in the original recipe. Make sure to use the coconut milk that comes in a carton – not the can. Big difference! SoDelicious is a favorite 😉

If you try the Shrimp Scampi with Summer Squash “Noodles” and try to tell me that you miss linguine… I will straight out tell you that you are CRAZY! This recipe is crazy good. Just make it tonight…you will be so happy!!

Friday night is traditionally pizza night in my house! My girls looooove “make-your-own” French Bread Pizza Night (recipe is also part of Cheat Week meal plan)!! This was our low carb solution to our usual — and honestly was so SO so yummy that it just may have replaced it. We hung out and caught up on our week while the meatloaf cooked and had a fabulous family Friday night! Didn’t miss a thing from our usual pizza! If you’re super motivated…a green salad would probably be nice with this meal…Just go ahead and use up that left-over arugula… Check out the Smokey Chicken with Simple Arugula Salad recipe from my Fun with a Side of Easy meal plan for a yummy option!

Would love your thoughts and feedback on this delicious meal plan. Please be sure to share this and tag me with any photos you take of your creations of these recipes! Enjoy!!

PS – I’ve updated all of my previous blog posts so that you can now get each recipe individually…just click on the name of it. Also, I added a section called “Recipes” which has the recipes for each of the meals I’ve posted on social media… No more useless searching (hopefully). Please let me know if there’s one that I missed that you’ve been searching for! Cheers! ~SO

If you’re diving in an making this your meal plan for next week, you can print all of these Gluten and Lactose Free recipes by clicking here – Recipes

And of course, the GROCERY LIST to go with so that you are SO prepared – Shopping List

Cheers!!!!

For the non-GF/LF version of this menu or if you are interested in modifying this dinner plan in another way… Or for your OWN Custom Plan, please contact me at soprepared@gmail.comBy being so prepared with your plan at the grocery store you will save so much $$ on your groceries. Works for me every time…well when I actually do it – haha 😉 Dietary restrictions welcome!